This section introduces aspects that may be helpful to facilitating a better understanding of the inventions. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art.
Optical modulators often use one or more Mach-Zehnder interferometers. These devices typically include electro-optic modulators. Such modulators have been implemented in various optical media, including silicon, compound semiconductors, and LiNbO3. While these devices are capable of high-speed performance, they can also consume significant power, e.g. for heating or electrically polarizing waveguide segments to modulate the refractive index of the segments. When integrated into an optical system, a significant portion of the power consumption of the system may result from the optical modulators.